Forward-looking Mipim opens

The world’s most important professional real estate show – Mipim – opened its doors today in Cannes with a number of changes. First of all, there is a large ‘innovation’ section with many companies operating in the world of the changing way we consider real estate and allied subjects. As an example of this, a conference (moderated by a journalist from the Wall Street Journal) considered how the arrival of self-driving cars might impact on the way we build our cities. This is a perfect example of how domains which were previously thought to be self-contained in their own individual silos, are now very much inter-connected. Another new feature is in the same line of thinking as the innovation section: the self-explanatory ‘First Timers ‘HQ’.

The Belgian Pavilion occupies the same space it has done for the past few years, with a highly visible entrance directly from the Croisette. Today has been relatively quiet in terms of events, but this is all set to change over the next two days, with a full programme of presentations from the three Regions, Brussels, Wallonia and Flanders, which make up the Pavilion.